A NEW DIRECTION FOR THE OLD RAM

The Old Ram-Australia

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G'day folks ,well there are a few questions to be answered in relation to this post.

We used to class our wool into 2 lines and the wool buyer would come and weight it and pay us for our fleece lines a$1.00 a kg and skirting's at $.50 a kg.But this lot is just "too rough" and it will be composted.

I shore 9 and then had a 1 hour break and did the rest.The best i ever did was 30 in 5 hours,but even an average shearer would do that in 2 hours and the same number for the next 3 x 2 hour runs.When i got up this morning i was pretty "tight" in the "hammies" and was glad today was a "rest day",and we just did a hour or so spraying in the afternoon.

I think the reason i can still shear is that i did not start in earnest until i was in my early 60's and by that age most pro shearers have "worn themselves out" doing big runs for 30 or so years.

The back was pretty good this morning so i should be fine,The sling is the best ,its spring loaded and you actually have to push down ,rather than trying to hold your back up on the "blows" close to the floor.Everybody who tries shearing should invest in one of these (there are a couple of types),mine was 2nd hand at a farm clearing sale.

Mustang ,are you kidding me this is why we only have 15 now ,its "damm " hard work at the best of times:old.

I still have to put the other post together ,it will happen in the next few days......T.O.R.
 

The Old Ram-Australia

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G'day folks,well its day 2 after shearing and am feeling fine and have managed a few hours of weed spraying (with a backpack).
A week or so now we set up the mobile yards to drench the ewes and to "mark "the lambs in the Elite group (a mix of Wiltshire Horns and W.H. Dorpers).This group is made up of 100% total shedders and have lambed almost 80% ewes. In the background you can see the paddock they have been grazing ,our place is everything this side of the "really green " paddock of our neighbors.But don't be fooled by the green ,up close it is as short as a coat of paint.

1.Mobile yards in "travel mode"...2.The ram group...3.Holding ,forcing and race...4.the find "mum" pen over half of these ewes are feeding twins,but they will soon pick up once the lambs are taken away...I am considering lot feeding the lambs at the end of the month if it does not rain beforehand.
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The pic of the rams shows them to be in not "bad shape",if a little scruffy,but the rough wool is not their main attribute.

As you can see the yards are set up as a holding pen ,a forcing pen and a race to undertake the jobs.The next time we use them i will put a gate between the holding pen and the forcing pen to stop them "backing out" when trying to get them into the race.The pen on the R/H side is to let them find "mum" again and to recover from the marking.
 

Baymule

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Very cool that your working equipment is portable. With a farm the size of yours, it makes sense to take the working chute to the sheep.
 

The Old Ram-Australia

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G'day folks,I thought you might like to comment on this post i put up on our F.B. pages.

MANAGING NON-SEASONAL BREEDS:Are we as farmers working "against nature" when we try to micro manage the breeding of Hair breeds?....Non -seasonal means just that .These breeds have evolved over a couple of 000 years to take advantage of breeding opportunity's from un-seasonal weather events...So it would seem to me that by "micro- managing " these breeds are we not working against the natural scheme of things?....So after the drop of rain last night I will put the nominated rams in with the ewes, except of course for the Suffolk's which are seasonal breeders and a line of Wilipol ewes which are to be sold after their lambs come off of them....We will revisit this post in Feb/Mar 2020 and review the results then.
 

Baymule

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Question for discussion; If you leave the ram in with seasonal breeds of sheep, will he breed the ewes anyway? Are there ever "oops" lambs out of season?
 

The Old Ram-Australia

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I would imagine that he can only mate if they season, which because they are seasonal breeders it is extreme unlikely i would think.

What has been the experience of the group?.....T.O.R.
 

The Old Ram-Australia

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G'day folks,i thought you might enjoy an update on the Aswssi's. The two groups are now run as one.In the last pic you will notice a "shaggy one" which i think is a Damara x,but has a nice type lamb at foot.......When i get the group in to mark the lambs I will fit an Alpaca comb to the hand-piece which i hope will lift the rough wool up and make removal easy(i hope).

Overall i am pretty happy with these sheep and they will soon be off to a new 30 ac paddock with a good deal of shrubby regrowth and a large stand of Cottonwoods which are suckering and i expect them to control it over summer .the other thing is a Briar Rose which is a nuisance weed across our place....In the last few days we have had the Persians in our house paddock for a couple of hours each day and they have a distinct liking for rose bushes so i hope these do as well.......T.O.R.
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